Real-time consumer interaction via media broadcast with automated callback handling during media playback

ABSTRACT

A system for integrated consumer interaction via media broadcast utilizing automated callback handling during media playback, comprising an immediate communication system that communicates with a media provider and a communications system, wherein the consumer submits a request to a content provider for interaction that is then handled by the immediate communication to establish an interaction with a communication system, and a method for providing integrated consumer interaction. Additionally, the components of the system can be configured to support automated callback handling during media content playback for incoming requests such as incoming calls, texts, and emails.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Priority is claimed in the application data sheet to the followingpatents or patent applications, each of which is expressly incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety:

-   -   Ser. No. 17/573,573    -   Ser. No. 17/014,889    -   Ser. No. 14/247,251

BACKGROUND Field of the Invention

The invention relates to the field of consumer advertising andinteraction, and more particularly to the field of interacting with aconsumer through a media broadcast.

Discussion of the State of the Art

Almost every company today spends a great deal of money on marketing andadvertising. Some forms of advertising are relatively cheap, while otherforms of advertising, live TV commercials, are very expensive—especiallyduring prime viewing hours or during special events. The goal of TVadvertising is really focused around two primary objectives.

One objective is to reinforce the company's brand and awareness in themarket to ensure that when a consumer or company may need thatproduct/service they think of them first. This type of focused TVadvertising is usually utilized by the major consumer product companies,like BUDWEISER™, PEPSI™, and others. Their goal to make sure that thenext time a consumer is going to purchase a product they provide, thattheir brand is chosen over the competition.

Another objective for investing in expensive TV advertising is to exciteand motivate the consumer to do something “now”. This is referred to as“call to action” marketing, and Companies that invest in this type of TVadvertising usually display a toll free number on the screen, repeat thenumber multiple times throughout the commercial, and try to prompt theconsumer to pick up the phone and call. Companies that use this type ofadvertising strategy will look to show their commercial during a type ofshow (drama, comedy, miniseries, sports events . . . ), and during timesthat fit the demographics of the type of consumer they are marketing.They also realize that the greatest consumer response to the commercialwill happen during, or shortly after the commercial airs—after that, theconsumer will usually forget, get distracted, or lose interest inpurchasing the product.

Investing in live TV advertising has been the steadfast form ofmarketing for companies to get their company/brand in front of existingand potential customers. Since most companies are targeting similarconsumer profile types, the prime viewing hours are so expensive thatusually only the major brands can afford competing for advertising slotsmade available by the broadcasters. This makes live TV commercials oneof the most expensive forms of advertising/marketing that a company willinvest in, and in the case of “call to action” advertising the companywill see very little return on their investment unless the consumerwatching the commercial immediately contacts them.

The easier a company can make it for a consumer to get in contact withthe company, the more likely it is that they (the consumer) will do whatthe company is trying to accomplish with the commercial—which is tocontact the company. Providing a toll-free telephone contact numbertakes away any potential toll cost to the consumer associated withcalling the company, but it really doesn't make it easier for them andtoday toll free numbers are viewed as “expected” by consumers. However,calling a company can be viewed by consumers as aggravating, becausethey have to typically get up from the couch/chair, write down orremember the number, and then grab the phone and dial, and then theyknow that the call will be answered by an automated system asking themto enter/press numbers. This can be a major deterrent for the consumerto act on their initial reaction to call the company after viewing acommercial. This means that companies are not realizing the full returnon their TV advertising investment simply because it is perceived by theconsumers as too much effort.

What is needed is a means to integrate consumer contact or interactionwith the media broadcasts that contain advertisements intended to targetthem—thereby alleviating any perceived inconvenience caused by thecontact, and expediting the interaction process.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the inventor has conceived and reduced to practice, in apreferred embodiment of the invention, a system and method forintegrating contact queuing methodologies and systems into networkbroadcasting advertising and programming systems that are linked withthe advertising companies' sales and service resources, and that mayutilize and integrate with the readily available consumer based receiverhardware (such as a remote, “smart” device, and cable/TV box). Such asystem can provide automated callback handling during media playback ona consumer device for incoming requests such as incoming calls, texts,and emails.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, a system forintegrated consumer interaction with automated callback handling duringmedia playback is disclosed, comprising: a media player applicationinstalled on a consumer device, the media player application comprisinga first plurality of programming instruction stored in a memory of, andoperating on a processor of, the consumer device, wherein the firstplurality of programming instructions, when operating on the processorof the consumer device, cause the consumer device to: request, receive,and store contact and preference information from a user; receive mediacontent from a content provider; play the media content on the consumerdevice; while the media content is playing, display an interactiveinterface element within a graphical user interface operating on theuser's consumer device; and upon receipt of a user command via theinteractive interface element: automatically retrieve real-time consumercontext data comprising at least location, activity, and languagepreference data from the consumer device based on the media contentbeing played, its associated metadata and the current local time on theconsumer device; automatically generate an electronic callback; andautomatically send the callback request to an integrated communicationsserver; and the integrated communication server comprising a memory, aprocessor, and a second plurality of programmable instructions stored inthe memory of, and operating on the processor of, the integratedcommunication server, wherein the second plurality of programminginstructions, when operating on the processor of the integratedcommunication server, cause the integrated communication server to:receive the company contact information, the media contentidentification, and the user's contact and preference information;receive a callback request from the consumer device; automaticallyschedule a callback to the user of the consumer device based at least onthe metadata specific to media content being played on the user deviceand on the received contact and preference information; and whenscheduled, automatically place a telephone call to the consumer deviceand to a call center agent appropriately skilled to handle the specificcallback request.

According to another preferred embodiment, a method for integratedconsumer interaction with automated callback handling during mediaplayback is disclosed, comprising the steps of: configuring a mediaplayer application to perform the following steps when installed on aconsumer device: requesting, receiving, and storing contact andpreference information from a user; receiving media content from acontent provider; playing the media content on the consumer device;while the media content is playing, displaying an interactive interfaceelement within a graphical user interface operating on the user'sconsumer device; upon receipt of a user command via the interactiveinterface element: automatically retrieving real-time consumer contextdata comprising at least location, activity, and language preferencedata from the consumer device based on the media content being played,its associated metadata and the current local time on the consumerdevice; automatically generating an electronic callback; andautomatically sending the callback request to an integratedcommunication server comprising a memory, a processor, and a pluralityof programming instructions stored in the memory and operating on theprocessor; using the integrated communication server to perform thefollowing steps: receiving the company contact information, the mediacontent identification, and the user's contact and preferenceinformation; receiving a callback request from the consumer device;automatically scheduling a callback to the user of the consumer devicebased at least on the metadata specific to media content being played onthe user device and on the received contact and preference information;and when scheduled, automatically placing a telephone call to theconsumer device and to a call center agent appropriately skilled tohandle the specific callback request.

According to an aspect of an embodiment, the media player application isfurther configured to: while the media content is playing: receive anincoming request from a second user, wherein the incoming request is anincoming call, text, email, or voicemail; retrieve consumer informationand information associated with incoming request; and send the consumerinformation and the information associated with the incoming request tothe integrated communication server.

According to an aspect of an embodiment, the integrated communicationserver is further configured to: receive the consumer information andthe information associated with the incoming request; use the consumerinformation to identify a consumer profile in a database, wherein theconsumer information comprises a unique identifier which is used tomatch against a stored unique identifier in the consumer profile;retrieve consumer callback preference information from the identifiedconsumer profile; automatically schedule a callback between the user ofthe consumer device and the second user based at least on the consumercallback preference information; and when scheduled, automatically placea telephone call to the consumer device and to the second user.

According to an aspect of an embodiment, the consumer callbackpreference information further comprises configuration settings forhandling incoming requests while the media content is being played

According to an aspect of an embodiment, the configuration settingscomprise user-specific preferences, group-based preferences,playback-based preferences, schedule-based preferences, group basedpreferences, media-based preferences, and communication channel specificpreferences.

According to an aspect of an embodiment, the telephone call to theconsumer device and to a call center agent establishes a two-way voiceconnection between the user of the consumer device and a selected callcenter agent.

According to an aspect of an embodiment, the telephone call to theconsumer device and the to the second user establishes a two-way voiceconnection between the user of the consumer device and the second user.

According to an aspect of an embodiment, the consumer callbackpreference information is stored in a data storage operating as acomponent of the integrated communication server.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawings illustrate several embodiments of theinvention and, together with the description, serve to explain theprinciples of the invention according to the embodiments. One skilled inthe art will recognize that the particular embodiments illustrated inthe drawings are merely exemplary, and are not intended to limit thescope of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device used in an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary logical architecturefor a client device, according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an exemplary architectural arrangementof clients, servers, and external services, according to an embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 4 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device used in various embodiments of theinvention.

FIG. 5 is a system architecture diagram illustrating an exemplary systemfor consumer contact integration with media broadcasts, according to apreferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a method flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method forproviding consumer contact integrated with media broadcasts, accordingto a preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor providing automated callback handling during media playback forincoming requests, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for automatedcallback handling during media playback on a consumer device, accordingto an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventor has conceived, and reduced to practice, a system and methodfor integrated consumer contact via media broadcasts with automatedcallback handling during media playback.

One or more different inventions may be described in the presentapplication. Further, for one or more of the inventions describedherein, numerous alternative embodiments may be described; it should beunderstood that these are presented for illustrative purposes only. Thedescribed embodiments are not intended to be limiting in any sense. Oneor more of the inventions may be widely applicable to numerousembodiments, as is readily apparent from the disclosure. In general,embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilledin the art to practice one or more of the inventions, and it is to beunderstood that other embodiments may be utilized and that structural,logical, software, electrical and other changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the particular inventions. Accordingly,those skilled in the art will recognize that one or more of theinventions may be practiced with various modifications and alterations.Particular features of one or more of the inventions may be describedwith reference to one or more particular embodiments or figures thatform a part of the present disclosure, and in which are shown, by way ofillustration, specific embodiments of one or more of the inventions. Itshould be understood, however, that such features are not limited tousage in the one or more particular embodiments or figures withreference to which they are described. The present disclosure is neithera literal description of all embodiments of one or more of theinventions nor a listing of features of one or more of the inventionsthat must be present in all embodiments.

Headings of sections provided in this patent application and the titleof this patent application are for convenience only, and are not to betaken as limiting the disclosure in any way.

Devices that are in communication with each other need not be incontinuous communication with each other, unless expressly specifiedotherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with eachother may communicate directly or indirectly through one or moreintermediaries, logical or physical.

A description of an embodiment with several components in communicationwith each other does not imply that all such components are required. Tothe contrary, a variety of optional components may be described toillustrate a wide variety of possible embodiments of one or more of theinventions and in order to more fully illustrate one or more aspects ofthe inventions. Similarly, although process steps, method steps,algorithms or the like may be described in a sequential order, suchprocesses, methods and algorithms may generally be configured to work inalternate orders, unless specifically stated to the contrary. In otherwords, any sequence or order of steps that may be described in thispatent application does not, in and of itself, indicate a requirementthat the steps be performed in that order. The steps of describedprocesses may be performed in any order practical. Further, some stepsmay be performed simultaneously despite being described or implied asoccurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because one step is described afterthe other step). Moreover, the illustration of a process by itsdepiction in a drawing does not imply that the illustrated process isexclusive of other variations and modifications thereto, does not implythat the illustrated process or any of its steps are necessary to one ormore of the invention(s), and does not imply that the illustratedprocess is preferred. Also, steps are generally described once perembodiment, but this does not mean they must occur once, or that theymay only occur once each time a process, method, or algorithm is carriedout or executed. Some steps may be omitted in some embodiments or someoccurrences, or some steps may be executed more than once in a givenembodiment or occurrence.

When a single device or article is described, it will be readilyapparent that more than one device or article may be used in place of asingle device or article. Similarly, where more than one device orarticle is described, it will be readily apparent that a single deviceor article may be used in place of the more than one device or article.

The functionality or the features of a device may be alternativelyembodied by one or more other devices that are not explicitly describedas having such functionality or features. Thus, other embodiments of oneor more of the inventions need not include the device itself.

Techniques and mechanisms described or referenced herein will sometimesbe described in singular form for clarity. However, it should be notedthat particular embodiments include multiple iterations of a techniqueor multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless noted otherwise.Process descriptions or blocks in figures should be understood asrepresenting modules, segments, or portions of code which include one ormore executable instructions for implementing specific logical functionsor steps in the process. Alternate implementations are included withinthe scope of embodiments of the present invention in which, for example,functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed,including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending onthe functionality involved, as would be understood by those havingordinary skill in the art.

Definitions

A “consumer”, as used herein, may be any person or party that may viewor otherwise consume media. For example, a consumer may be an individualviewing a television commercial, or a computer user listening to anaudio recording over the Internet, or any other appropriate mediaconsumption.

A “provider”, as used herein, may be any party that may present mediafor viewing or consumption by consumers. For example, a provider may bea company providing advertisements via television or other broadcasts,or an individual providing content for viewing over the Internet (suchas a video on YOUTUBE™ or other hosting service), or a hosting serviceproviding media on behalf of media creators (such as YOUTUBE™ itself,providing user-uploaded media content).

“Callback object” as used herein means a data object representingcallback data, such as the identities and call information for a firstand second user, the parameters for a callback including what time itshall be performed, and any other relevant data for a callback to becompleted based on the data held by the callback object.

Hardware Architecture

Generally, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented onhardware or a combination of software and hardware. For example, theymay be implemented in an operating system kernel, in a separate userprocess, in a library package bound into network applications, on aspecially constructed machine, on an application-specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), or on a network interface card.

Software/hardware hybrid implementations of at least some of theembodiments disclosed herein may be implemented on a programmablenetwork-resident machine (which should be understood to includeintermittently connected network-aware machines) selectively activatedor reconfigured by a computer program stored in memory. Such networkdevices may have multiple network interfaces that may be configured ordesigned to utilize different types of network communication protocols.A general architecture for some of these machines may be disclosedherein in order to illustrate one or more exemplary means by which agiven unit of functionality may be implemented. According to specificembodiments, at least some of the features or functionalities of thevarious embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented on one or moregeneral-purpose computers associated with one or more networks, such asfor example an end-user computer system, a client computer, a networkserver or other server system, a mobile computing device (e.g., tabletcomputing device, mobile phone, smartphone, laptop, and the like), aconsumer electronic device, a music player, or any other suitableelectronic device, router, switch, or the like, or any combinationthereof. In at least some embodiments, at least some of the features orfunctionalities of the various embodiments disclosed herein may beimplemented in one or more virtualized computing environments (e.g.,network computing clouds, virtual machines hosted on one or morephysical computing machines, or the like).

Referring now to FIG. 1 , there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary computing device 100 suitable for implementing at least aportion of the features or functionalities disclosed herein. Computingdevice 100 may be, for example, any one of the computing machines listedin the previous paragraph, or indeed any other electronic device capableof executing software- or hardware-based instructions according to oneor more programs stored in memory. Computing device 100 may be adaptedto communicate with a plurality of other computing devices, such asclients or servers, over communications networks such as a wide areanetwork a metropolitan area network, a local area network, a wirelessnetwork, the Internet, or any other network, using known protocols forsuch communication, whether wireless or wired.

In one embodiment, computing device 100 includes one or more centralprocessing units (CPU) 102, one or more interfaces 110, and one or morebusses 106 (such as a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus). Whenacting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, CPU 102may be responsible for implementing specific functions associated withthe functions of a specifically configured computing device or machine.For example, in at least one embodiment, a computing device 100 may beconfigured or designed to function as a server system utilizing CPU 102,local memory 101 and/or remote memory 120, and interface(s) 110. In atleast one embodiment, CPU 102 may be caused to perform one or more ofthe different types of functions and/or operations under the control ofsoftware modules or components, which for example, may include anoperating system and any appropriate applications software, drivers, andthe like.

CPU 102 may include one or more processors 103 such as, for example, aprocessor from one of the Intel, ARM, Qualcomm, and AMD families ofmicroprocessors. In some embodiments, processors 103 may includespecially designed hardware such as application-specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories(EEPROMs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and so forth, forcontrolling operations of computing device 100. In a specificembodiment, a local memory 101 (such as non-volatile random accessmemory (RAM) and/or read-only memory (ROM), including for example one ormore levels of cached memory) may also form part of CPU 102. However,there are many different ways in which memory may be coupled to system100. Memory 101 may be used for a variety of purposes such as, forexample, caching and/or storing data, programming instructions, and thelike.

As used herein, the term “processor” is not limited merely to thoseintegrated circuits referred to in the art as a processor, a mobileprocessor, or a microprocessor, but broadly refers to a microcontroller,a microcomputer, a programmable logic controller, anapplication-specific integrated circuit, and any other programmablecircuit.

In one embodiment, interfaces 110 are provided as network interfacecards (NICs). Generally, NICs control the sending and receiving of datapackets over a computer network; other types of interfaces 110 may forexample support other peripherals used with computing device 100. Amongthe interfaces that may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relayinterfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces,graphics interfaces, and the like. In addition, various types ofinterfaces may be provided such as, for example, universal serial bus(USB), Serial, Ethernet, Firewire™, PCI, parallel, radio frequency (RF),Bluetooth™ near-field communications (e.g., using near-field magnetics),802.11 (WiFi), frame relay, TCP/IP, ISDN, fast Ethernet interfaces,Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM)interfaces, high-speed serial interface (HSSI) interfaces, Point of Sale(POS) interfaces, fiber data distributed interfaces (FDDIs), and thelike. Generally, such interfaces 110 may include ports appropriate forcommunication with appropriate media. In some cases, they may alsoinclude an independent processor and, in some in stances, volatileand/or non-volatile memory (e.g., RAM).

Although the system shown in FIG. 1 illustrates one specificarchitecture for a computing device 100 for implementing one or more ofthe inventions described herein, it is by no means the only devicearchitecture on which at least a portion of the features and techniquesdescribed herein may be implemented. For example, architectures havingone or any number of processors 103 may be used, and such processors 103may be present in a single device or distributed among any number ofdevices. In one embodiment, a single processor 103 handlescommunications as well as routing computations, while in otherembodiments a separate dedicated communications processor may beprovided. In various embodiments, different types of features orfunctionalities may be implemented in a system according to theinvention that includes a client device (such as a tablet device orsmartphone running client software) and server systems (such as a serversystem described in more detail below).

Regardless of network device configuration, the system of the presentinvention may employ one or more memories or memory modules (such as,for example, remote memory block 120 and local memory 101) configured tostore data, program instructions for the general-purpose networkoperations, or other information relating to the functionality of theembodiments described herein (or any combinations of the above). Programinstructions may control execution of or comprise an operating systemand/or one or more applications, for example. Memory 120 or memories101, 120 may also be configured to store data structures, configurationdata, encryption data, historical system operations information, or anyother specific or generic non-program information described herein.

Because such information and program instructions may be employed toimplement one or more systems or methods described herein, at least somenetwork device embodiments may include nontransitory machine-readablestorage media, which, for example, may be configured or designed tostore program instructions, state information, and the like forperforming various operations described herein. Examples of suchnontransitory machine-readable storage media include, but are notlimited to, magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, andmagnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical mediasuch as optical disks, and hardware devices that are speciallyconfigured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-onlymemory devices (ROM), flash memory, solid state drives, memristormemory, random access memory (RAM), and the like. Examples of programinstructions include both object code, such as may be produced by acompiler, machine code, such as may be produced by an assembler or alinker, byte code, such as may be generated by for example a Java™compiler and may be executed using a Java virtual machine or equivalent,or files containing higher level code that may be executed by thecomputer using an interpreter (for example, scripts written in Python,Perl, Ruby, Groovy, or any other scripting language).

In some embodiments, systems according to the present invention may beimplemented on a standalone computing system. Referring now to FIG. 2 ,there is shown a block diagram depicting a typical exemplaryarchitecture of one or more embodiments or components thereof on astandalone computing system. Computing device 200 includes processors210 that may run software that carry out one or more functions orapplications of embodiments of the invention, such as for example aclient application 230. Processors 210 may carry out computinginstructions under control of an operating system 220 such as, forexample, a version of Microsoft's Windows™ operating system, Apple's MacOS/X or iOS operating systems, some variety of the Linux operatingsystem, Google's Android™ operating system, or the like. In many cases,one or more shared services 225 may be operable in system 200, and maybe useful for providing common services to client applications 230.Services 225 may for example be Windows™ services, user-space commonservices in a Linux environment, or any other type of common servicearchitecture used with operating system 210. Input devices 270 may be ofany type suitable for receiving user input, including for example akeyboard, touchscreen, microphone (for example, for voice input), mouse,touchpad, trackball, or any combination thereof. Output devices 260 maybe of any type suitable for providing output to one or more users,whether remote or local to system 200, and may include for example oneor more screens for visual output, speakers, printers, or anycombination thereof. Memory 240 may be random-access memory having anystructure and architecture known in the art, for use by processors 210,for example to run software. Storage devices 250 may be any magnetic,optical, mechanical, memristor, or electrical storage device for storageof data in digital form. Examples of storage devices 250 include flashmemory, magnetic hard drive, CD-ROM, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, systems of the present invention may be implementedon a distributed computing network, such as one having any number ofclients and/or servers. Referring now to FIG. 3 , there is shown a blockdiagram depicting an exemplary architecture for implementing at least aportion of a system according to an embodiment of the invention on adistributed computing network 300. According to the embodiment, anynumber of clients 330 may be provided. Each client 330 may run softwarefor implementing client-side portions of the present invention; clientsmay comprise a system 200 such as that illustrated in FIG. 2 . Inaddition, any number of servers 320 may be provided for handlingrequests received from one or more clients 330. Clients 330 and servers320 may communicate with one another via one or more electronic networks310, which may be in various embodiments any of the Internet, a widearea network, a mobile telephony network, a wireless network (such asWiFi, Wimax, and so forth), or a local area network (or indeed anynetwork topology known in the art; the invention does not prefer any onenetwork topology over any other). Networks 310 may be implemented usingany known network protocols, including for example wired and/or wirelessprotocols.

In addition, in some embodiments, servers 320 may call external services370 when needed to obtain additional information, or to refer toadditional data concerning a particular call. Communications withexternal services 370 may take place, for example, via one or morenetworks 310. In various embodiments, external services 370 may compriseweb-enabled services or functionality related to or installed on thehardware device itself. For example, in an embodiment where clientapplications 230 are implemented on a smartphone or other electronicdevice, client applications 230 may obtain information stored in aserver system 320 in the cloud or on an external service 370 deployed onone or more of a particular enterprise's or user's premises.

In some embodiments of the invention, clients 330 or servers 320 (orboth) may make use of one or more specialized services or appliancesthat may be deployed locally or remotely across one or more networks310. For example, one or more databases 340 may be used or referred toby one or more embodiments of the invention. It should be understood byone having ordinary skill in the art that databases 340 may be arrangedin a wide variety of architectures and using a wide variety of dataaccess and manipulation means. For example, in various embodiments oneor more databases 340 may comprise a relational database system using astructured query language (SQL), while others may comprise analternative data storage technology such as those referred to in the artas “NoSQL” (for example, Hadoop Cassandra, Google BigTable, and soforth). In some embodiments, variant database architectures such ascolumn-oriented databases, in-memory databases, clustered databases,distributed databases, or even flat file data repositories may be usedaccording to the invention. It will be appreciated by one havingordinary skill in the art that any combination of known or futuredatabase technologies may be used as appropriate, unless a specificdatabase technology or a specific arrangement of components is specifiedfor a particular embodiment herein. Moreover, it should be appreciatedthat the term “database” as used herein may refer to a physical databasemachine, a cluster of machines acting as a single database system, or alogical database within an overall database management system. Unless aspecific meaning is specified for a given use of the term “database”, itshould be construed to mean any of these senses of the word, all ofwhich are understood as a plain meaning of the term “database” by thosehaving ordinary skill in the art.

Similarly, most embodiments of the invention may make use of one or moresecurity systems 360 and configuration systems 350. Security andconfiguration management are common information technology (IT) and webfunctions, and some amount of each are generally associated with any ITor web systems. It should be understood by one having ordinary skill inthe art that any configuration or security subsystems known in the artnow or in the future may be used in conjunction with embodiments of theinvention without limitation, unless a specific security 360 orconfiguration system 350 or approach is specifically required by thedescription of any specific embodiment.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary overview of a computer system 400 as may beused in any of the various locations throughout the system. It isexemplary of any computer that may execute code to process data. Variousmodifications and changes may be made to computer system 400 withoutdeparting from the broader spirit and scope of the system and methoddisclosed herein. CPU 401 is connected to bus 402, to which bus is alsoconnected memory 403, nonvolatile memory 404, display 407, I/O unit 408,and network interface card (NIC) 413. I/O unit 408 may, typically, beconnected to keyboard 409, pointing device 410, hard disk 412, andreal-time clock 411. NIC 413 connects to network 414, which may be theInternet or a local network, which local network may or may not haveconnections to the Internet. Also shown as part of system 400 is powersupply unit 405 connected, in this example, to ac supply 406. Not shownare batteries that could be present, and many other devices andmodifications that are well known but are not applicable to the specificnovel functions of the current system and method disclosed herein.

In various embodiments, functionality for implementing systems ormethods of the present invention may be distributed among any number ofclient and/or server components. For example, various software modulesmay be implemented for performing various functions in connection withthe present invention, and such modules may be variously implemented torun on server and/or client components.

Conceptual Architecture

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an exemplary system architecture 500 forproviding integrated consumer interaction via media broadcasts,according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. As illustrated, asystem 500 may comprise an immediate communication system (ICS) 501,that may be any suitable hardware or software component such as asoftware application operating on a computing device such as a server,or may be a software app operating on a consumer's personal device suchas a smartphone or any other device suitable for media consumption orcommunication. In this manner, it can be appreciated that the functionsof an ICS (as described below) may be provided as a service that may addfunction to existing media consumption (such as by operating on the“backend”, adding function to services provided to consumer deviceswithout any modification of those devices or even the consumer'sknowledge), or may be provided as a dedicated solution such as asoftware app that consumers may choose to install on their device, suchthat they may choose when to utilize the additional functions provided(such as by viewing media through an integrated media consumption andcommunications app, rather than using an integrated approach withexisting media consumption solutions).

As illustrated, an ICS 501 may engage in two-way communications withcontent providers 502 and communication systems 503 such as contactcenters or personal contact means (such as an email or cellularcommunications provider), and may also be connected to a database 505(that may be any suitable data storage means, such as physical storagedevices or software-based data storage means as are common in the art).As further illustrated, content providers 502 may present media toconsumers 504 for viewing, such as providing broadcasts of audio, video,or other media content for consumption. It should be appreciated thatall connections shown may vary in nature such as being remoteconnections via the Internet or similar data communications network, ormay be direct connections such as systems operating on a local areanetwork (LAN) via wireless or direct physical connectionsinterchangeably, and that such connections are shown in an abbreviatedform for the sake of illustration clarity.

Consumers may be able to send requests 510 to content providers, such asto request communication with parties relevant to media being viewed(such as requesting to contact a company while viewing an advertisementabout a product or service they offer). These requests may be passed toan ICS, optionally with additional information that may be relevant to arequest (such as information regarding a consumer's locale or deviceinformation), for handling. Additionally, an ICS 501 may communicatewith a database 505, such as to retrieve 511 information that may berelevant to request handling (such as previously-established consumerinformation, for example communication preferences or other informationthat may be relevant to interactions or their handling). An ICS may thencommunicate 512 with a communication system 503 to complete a request,such as to establish communication with them on behalf of a consumer(such as sending an email notification when requested), or to requestinteraction with a consumer (such as requesting that a contact centerplace a call to a consumer's contact number, optionally scheduling apreferred time for interaction or setting other preferences). When acommunication system 503 receives this information and any requisiteconditions are met (such as a consumer's preferred contact time or anagent is available in a consumer's preferred language), they mayestablish a two-way communication 520 with a consumer (such ascompleting a call connection, or placing an outbound call to aconsumer's phone).

In this manner, a request may be completed and a consumer may interactwith a desired party without ever needing to contact them directly, oreven without knowing any of their contact information (such assubmitting a request to speak with an agent on behalf of a company,without actually knowing or entering any contact information about thatcompany). Such contact information for participants (i.e., consumer 504and communication system 503) may be ascertained by an ICS 501 viacommunication with the systems or entities involved, and may be storedin a database 505 to expedite future operations.

According to some aspects, system 500 may be configured to integratewith an enhanced queue management system (not pictured) for bi-lateraldata exchange. An enhanced queue management system may be any suitablehardware or software component such as a software application operatingon a computing device such as a server, or may be a software appoperating on a consumer's personal device such as a smartphone or anyother device suitable for media consumption or communication. Accordingto some embodiments, enhanced queue management system may comprise aplurality of modules configured for analysis, modeling, simulation, anddata processing, and may comprise one or more databases. According tosome embodiments, enhanced queue management system may be configured toestablish and manage one or significantly more than one queue, as wellas sequences of queues (e.g., for example at an airport where peoplegenerally flow from one queue (check-in, baggage check) to another queue(security line)). The established queues may be associated with bothphysical events or virtual events. Enhanced queue management system mayestablish and manage a virtual queue, a physical queue, or bothsimultaneously. The queue management system may receive a variety ofrequests related to queue (e.g., request to join a queue, request toleave a queue, request for queue wait time, request to change queues,request to change positions in queue, etc.) and process those requestaccordingly. Enhanced queue management system may also be configured tosend notifications to individuals (or groups) who have submitted arequest and/or individuals (or groups) who are currently waiting in aphysical queue or in line in a virtual queue. Such notifications maycomprise updates about queue status (e.g., current wait time, estimatedwait time, number of people in queue, new queue openings, confirmingrequest to join queue, etc.). Notifications may be sent periodically ona set schedule (e.g., every 5 minutes, every 10 minutes, when queueconditions change, etc.).

According to some embodiments, enhanced queue management system mayleverage a plurality of information related to queues and use machinelearning to construct models which can be used to optimize one or morecharacteristics associated with the one or more virtual or physicalqueues being managed by queue management system. For example,information related to queues may include, but is not limited to: sensordata (e.g., cameras used to monitor physical queues, pressure sensorsfor determining number of people in a physical queue, etc.); GPS data todetermine the location of an individual (or group); “Big Data”; mobiledevice data from queue members; queue theory; queue psychology; 3^(rd)party data (e.g., traffic data, weather data, event data, social mediadata, etc.); intent and/or sentiment; data derived from natural languageprocessing; historical queue data; entity data (e.g., data related tothe entity for which a queue is established, for example, a theme parkusing the enhanced queue management system to manage both physical andvirtual queues for the theme park attractions); and various other typesof information. According to some embodiments, queue management systemmay perform a plurality of simulations in order to optimize around oneor more queue parameters (e.g., queue throughput, queue wait time,etc.). According to some embodiments, the simulations may be based onthe model developed using the machine learning capabilities of queuemanagement system.

According to some aspects, system 500 may integrate with an enhancedqueue management system to manage queues that may form when consumers504 are connected with content providers 502. For example, enhancedqueue management system may receive a plurality of callback requestsfrom system 500 or from a consumer device and process the callbackrequests into the queue associated with the proper content provider 502.For example, the callback request may be directed to a call center whichmay have a plurality of call center agents, and each agent may have aqueue of customers that are waiting to be helped by the call centeragent. In this example, the queue management system could optimallyplace, monitor, and adjust the callback requests within the call centeragent queues. In yet another embodiment, queue management system mayreceive, retrieve, or otherwise obtain real-time consumer context datacomprising at least location, activity, and language preference datafrom the consumer device based on the media content being played, itsassociated metadata and the current local time on the consumer deviceand consumer contact and preference data, and use this information toassign callback requestors to a queue for a call center agent mostappropriate to process the consumers issue or request.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system 700architecture for providing automated callback handling during mediaplayback for incoming requests, according to an embodiment. According tothe embodiment, system 700 comprises an integrated communication server710, one or more content providers 720, a consumer device 730, one ormore communication systems 740, and one or more user devices 750. Theintegrated communication server (ICS) 710, content provider 720,consumer device 730, communication system 740, and database 705 may allbe specifically configured versions of, referring to FIG. 5 , immediatecommunication system 501, content provider 502, consumer 504,communication system 503, and database 505, respectively, and mayprovide the same or similar functionality as previously described.

According to this embodiment, consumer device 730 may comprise aplurality of software applications (app or apps) 732 stored andoperating on the device such as (for example) social media apps,messaging apps, phone app, email app, gaming apps, contact list app,calendar and/or schedule app, map or navigation apps, etc. Additionally,a media player app 734 is stored and operating on the consumer device.Media player app 734 can be used for media playback purposes such as toplay media content provided by content providers 720. A user (consumer)of consumer device 730 can enter via the app 734 various user preferenceinformation associated with a plurality of actions such as, for example,media playback preferences, callback preferences, notification settings,and/or the like. Consumer device 730 may be any suitable computingdevice capable of storing and executing software and/or machine readableinstructions such as, for example, a smart phone, smart wearable, tabletcomputer, laptop, personal computer, etc.

According to the embodiment, media player app 734 can be configured toassist with automated callback handling during media playback forincoming request by first receiving, retrieving, or otherwise obtainingan incoming request to the consumer device 730 when media content isbeing played within media player app 734. Incoming requests may include,but are not limited to, incoming calls, incoming texts, incomingnotifications, incoming emails, incoming voicemails, and/or the likefrom other users (which may be contact centers, vendors, etc.). The userof consumer device 730 can configure callback preferences for how toautomatically set up a callback he or she is playing media on theconsumer device 730. The user may enter these preferences during initialapplication install as part of the application set-up process or at anytime after by accessing user settings within the application andmodifying their preferences. In some implementations, the user callbackpreferences are configured at the consumer device 730, and stored in thecloud at database 705 which is managed by integrated communicationserver 710.

Callback preferences can be configured by the consumer based on variouscharacteristics. The callback functionality is intended to allow aconsumer to be un-interrupted when consuming media content (e.g., video,audio, virtual reality, etc.) on their device, while also providingautomated callback handling such that any incoming requests receivedduring media playback are processed based on consumer definedpreferences, settings, and/or rules. Callback preferences are similar to“Do Not Disturb” settings on a telephone, but can also be customizedbased on (for example) the type of communication channel used to send areceived incoming request, based on who or what group sent the incomingrequest, and based on the media content being interacted with. Callbacksettings can be configured, for example, for playback-based callbackswhich can cause ICS 710 to perform callbacks when the consumer is donewatching the media content. Callback setting can be configured, forexample, for schedule-based callbacks which can cause ICS 710 to performcallbacks at pre-defined times (e.g., default callback time of 10 a.m.the next day). Callback settings can be configured, for example, todelay notifications, such that all missed calls, text, emails, etc. areshown to the consumer after the media content has been consumed.Callback preferences may be based on the type of media being consumedand can be customized to a specific media application. For example, aconsumer's callback preferences while listening to a podcast on an musicstreaming application may be different than the callback preferencesdefined while consuming a movie streaming application. The providedcallback preferences are exemplary only and are non-limiting in theirdescription.

In operation a consumer is interacting with media content on consumerdevice 730 when an incoming request is obtained. Media player app 734intercepts or otherwise obtains the incoming message from another userdevice 750 and prevents it from interfering with the media playback (forexample, by stopping the generation and display of a notification pop-upindicating a received incoming request). Information about the consumer(e.g., device 730 identifier information such as telephone number, MACaddress, IMEI number; application data and/or metadata; location data,etc.) and information associated with the incoming request (e.g.,telephone number, location, user name or contact data, communicationchannel, etc.) may be retrieved, received, or otherwise obtained andsent to ICS 710.

According to the embodiment, ICS 710 is present and configured toreceive connections, data, and callback requests from consumer device730. ICS 710 also communicates with and exchanges data with contentproviders 720, communication system 740, and other user devices 750. Insome implementations, ICS 710 comprises a lookup engine 712 and acallback management engine 714. Lookup engine 712 can be configured toreceive consumer information, use the consumer information to lookup theconsumer profile in database 705 and retrieve the consumer callbackpreferences stored in the consumer profile, and then send the retrievedconsumer preferences to callback management engine 714. Lookup engine712 can also perform profile modification of user preferences andsettings. At consumer device 730 a consumer can define new preferencesand modify existing ones by interacting with interactive elementsdisplayed on a graphic user interface of consumer device 730. Theinteractions conducted by the consumer on the consumer device 730 can becaptured and sent to ICS 710 which is received by lookup engine 712 andused to create or modify existing consumer profiles stored in database705.

Callback management engine 714 can be configured to automaticallyschedule callback between the user of the consumer device 730 and theindividual or entity associated with the received incoming request basedat least on the consumer's callback preferences. Callback managementengine 714 may create a callback object which can be used to storeinformation related to two or more parties involved in the callback(e.g., consumer and vendor), scheduling data for when to execute thecallback, any available context data related to the callback (e.g.,metadata associated with the media content being played, location data,time/date data, environmental data, intent/sentiment data, etc.). Insome implementations, user callback preferences and settings may bestored in the callback object in the cloud based database 705.

Detailed Description of Exemplary Embodiments

FIG. 6 is a method flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method 600 forintegrated consumer contact, according to a preferred embodiment of theinvention. As illustrated, in an initial step 601 a consumer may selectcontent for viewing, such as listening to an audio broadcast or watchinga video. In a next step 602, an ICS may be notified of the contentselected (and optionally any additional relevant information such as auser's device information or location, such as for determining languagepreference or local time) by a content provider, and in a sub-step 603an ICS may then retrieve any known information that may be relevant,such as previously-established consumer information (such as language,location, preferred time or methods of contacts, or any other suchinformation relevant to a particular consumer), or known informationregarding communication systems or other information relevant to theparticular media being viewed, such as contact centers operated by acompany providing an advertisement, or an email address associated withan internet user that uploaded content being viewed. In a next step 604a consumer may submit a contact request, such as by selecting aninteractive interface element that submits a request, and if neededadditional information (such as contact preferences or deviceinformation) may be retrieved and submitted along with a request (forexample, a user may manually select or input such information such as byfilling out a form or answering prompts during request submission, or itmay be retrieved automatically, such as by reading a user's language andtime preferences from a smartphone used to submit a contact request). Ina next step 605, an ICS may process this information to determine how tohandle a contact request, such as choosing to engage a contact center ifa consumer is operating a smartphone, or to schedule a future contactattempt if a request is submitted outside of operating hours, or anyother such determination according to information received. In a nextstep 606, an ICS may communicate with a communication system appropriateto the particular request being handled, such as establishing aconnection with a contact center and providing a consumer's requestinformation to facilitate the contact center's handling of a call withthe consumer (for example, information that might traditionally beobtained by prompting a consumer to make selections via an IVR whencalling). In a next step 607, a communication system may complete aninteraction such as by communicating directly with a consumer, or byacknowledging a request such that an ICS may then connect the consumer(such as, for example, if a consumer submitted a request for a call viaa smartphone app, and subsequently waited on their phone for the requestto be handled and the call to be answered by a contact center agent). Inan optional final step 608, an ICS may optionally return a notificationto a media provider for presentation to a consumer, such as to confirm arequest was successfully submitted, or to provide any relevant detailssuch as the time of a scheduled contact.

In this manner, it can be appreciated that a variety of potentialinteraction types may be possible according to the invention, and mayaccommodate a wide variety of consumer needs, devices, communicationmeans, and media types. For example, during viewing of a televisionadvertisement a consumer might be prompted to press a button on theirremote control to request a call from a company regarding the product orservice being advertised. Upon submitting this request, the consumer'stelevision provider might provide their phone number (as may have beenused to establish their television service) to an ICS, which may thenprovide this information to a contact center for handling by an agent.An appropriately-skilled contact center agent (such as trained in theoperation of the product in the advertisement) may then receive thisrequest, and place a call to the consumer's telephone number, completingthe interaction.

Another example might be an individual listening to a streaming audioservice on their smartphone, such as via PANDORA™ or other streamingaudio service provider. The consumer might hear an advertisement betweensongs, and press a button on their streaming app to submit a request formore information regarding a product or service that was advertised. Therequest may be automatically populated with additional information thatmay be obtained from the consumer's device, such as their location,language preference, various contact information such as email address,alternate phone numbers, or even a physical address (any combination ofwhich may be stored within a smartphone or similar mobile communicationsdevice common in the art). The request may then be submitted to a knowncommunication system for the company in the advertisement, such as anemail address placed on file specifically for handling requests madethrough their PANDORA™ ads. The company may then, upon receipt of therequest and review of the information contained, choose to send aproduct catalog to the consumer's physical address that was obtainedfrom their device, as well as schedule a follow-up phone call anappropriate amount of time in the future to discuss the products withthe consumer after they have had an opportunity to review the catalogsent.

In this manner, it can be appreciated that the invention may be readilyadapted to any combination of media, consumer preference, or physicaldevice used by the consumer, and furthermore that existing devices andservices may utilize the functionality of the invention with little tono alteration—for example, PANDORA™ streaming audio broadcasts mayalready contain a variety of metadata such as artist information forsongs being played, and information relevant to the operation of theinvention (such as contact information for companies being advertised)may be included by populating fields already present but unused. In thismanner, existing services, devices, and standards may be easilyintegrated to provide the functions of the invention, and integrationmay take place without any disruption of consumer experience.Furthermore, integration may be seen as optional—some companies maychoose to offer the functionality of the invention, while others maychoose not to, and both may offer their advertisements interchangeablyvia similar media providers and to similar consumers and devices,allowing for gradual or “piecemeal” adoption, rather than forcingintegration and potentially causing issues such as (for example)companies withdrawing from particular media providers due to a desire toavoid the costs of integration.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for automatedcallback handling during media playback on a consumer device, accordingto an embodiment. According to the embodiment, the process begins at 802when a consumer selects some media content for viewing such as throughmedia player app 734. At 804 while the media content is playing, theconsumer device 730 receives an incoming request. The incoming requestmay be an incoming call, text, email, voicemail, and/or the like sentfrom another user (which may be a contact center, vendor, contentprovider, etc.). Media player app 734 may intercept or otherwise obtainthe incoming request and then retrieve information related to both theuser of consumer device 730 and other user who sent the incomingrequest. The retrieved consumer and other user information may be sentto ICS 710 at 806. ICS 710 can use some of the received consumer data toidentify a consumer profile stored in database 705 that matches the userof consumer device 710 and then retrieve user preference data from thematched consumer profile at 808. Consumer data that can be used to matchand identify a consumer profile can include a unique identifierassociated with consumer device 730 such as, for example, a telephonenumber, a MAC address, a IMEI number, etc., or any other uniqueinformation that can be used to link a consumer device 730 with aconsumer profile stored in database 705.

At 810 ICS 710 processes the intercepted request and schedules acallback between the consumer and the other user based at least on theretrieved consumer callback preferences. Callback preferences may beschedule-based, playback-based, specific to an individual or group,specific to the type of media content being played, specific to the typeof communication channel which was used to transmit the incomingrequest, and/or the like. ICS 710 may create a callback object which canstore all the relevant data necessary to automatically execute thecallback at the scheduled time. The callback object may be stored indatabase 705. At 812 the ICS 710 automatically executes the callback atthe scheduled time by connecting the consumer and the other user via acommunication network and/or communication system 740. ICS 710 canfacilitate the telephone call to the consumer device and the to thesecond user by establishing a two-way voice connection between the userof the consumer device and the second user. In this way, a method isprovided for automatic callback handling during media playback on aconsumer device.

The skilled person will be aware of a range of possible modifications ofthe various embodiments described above. Accordingly, the presentinvention is defined by the claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for integrated consumer interaction withautomated callback handling during media playback, comprising: a mediaplayer application installed on a consumer device, the media playerapplication comprising a first plurality of programming instructionstored in a memory of, and operating on a processor of, the consumerdevice, wherein the first plurality of programming instructions, whenoperating on the processor of the consumer device, cause the consumerdevice to: request, receive, and store contact and preferenceinformation from a user; receive media content from a content provider;play the media content on the consumer device; while the media contentis playing, display an interactive interface element within a graphicaluser interface operating on the user's consumer device; and upon receiptof a user command via the interactive interface element: automaticallyretrieve real-time consumer context data comprising at least location,activity, and language preference data from the consumer device based onthe media content being played, its associated metadata and the currentlocal time on the consumer device; automatically generate an electroniccallback; and automatically send the callback request to an integratedcommunications server; and the integrated communication servercomprising a memory, a processor, and a second plurality of programmableinstructions stored in the memory of, and operating on the processor of,the integrated communication server, wherein the second plurality ofprogramming instructions, when operating on the processor of theintegrated communication server, cause the integrated communicationserver to: receive the company contact information, the media contentidentification, and the user's contact and preference information;receive a callback request from the consumer device; automaticallyschedule a callback to the user of the consumer device based at least onthe metadata specific to media content being played on the user deviceand on the received contact and preference information; and whenscheduled, automatically place a telephone call to the consumer deviceand to a call center agent appropriately skilled to handle the specificcallback request.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the media playerapplication is further configured to: while the media content isplaying: receive an incoming request from a second user, wherein theincoming request is an incoming call, text, email, or voicemail;retrieve consumer information and information associated with incomingrequest; and send the consumer information and the informationassociated with the incoming request to the integrated communicationserver.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the integrated communicationserver is further configured to: receive the consumer information andthe information associated with the incoming request; use the consumerinformation to identify a consumer profile in a database, wherein theconsumer information comprises a unique identifier which is used tomatch against a stored unique identifier in the consumer profile;retrieve consumer callback preference information from the identifiedconsumer profile; automatically schedule a callback between the user ofthe consumer device and the second user based at least on the consumercallback preference information; and when scheduled, automatically placea telephone call to the consumer device and to the second user.
 4. Thesystem of claim 3, wherein the consumer callback preference informationfurther comprises configuration settings for handling incoming requestswhile the media content is being played.
 5. The system of claim 3,wherein the telephone call to the consumer device and the to the seconduser establishes a two-way voice connection between the user of theconsumer device and the second user.
 6. The system of claim 3, whereinthe consumer callback preference information is stored in a data storageoperating as a component of the integrated communication server.
 7. Thesystem of claim 4, wherein the configuration settings compriseuser-specific preferences, group-based preferences, playback-basedpreferences, schedule-based preferences, group based preferences,media-based preferences, and communication channel specific preferences.8. The system of claim 1, wherein the telephone call to the consumerdevice and to a call center agent establishes a two-way voice connectionbetween the user of the consumer device and a selected call centeragent.
 9. A method for integrated consumer interaction with automatedcallback handling during media playback, comprising the steps of:configuring a media player application to perform the following stepswhen installed on a consumer device: requesting, receiving, and storingcontact and preference information from a user; receiving media contentfrom a content provider; playing the media content on the consumerdevice; while the media content is playing, displaying an interactiveinterface element within a graphical user interface operating on theuser's consumer device; upon receipt of a user command via theinteractive interface element: automatically retrieving real-timeconsumer context data comprising at least location, activity, andlanguage preference data from the consumer device based on the mediacontent being played, its associated metadata and the current local timeon the consumer device; automatically generating an electronic callback;and automatically sending the callback request to an integratedcommunication server comprising a memory, a processor, and a pluralityof programming instructions stored in the memory and operating on theprocessor; using the integrated communication server to perform thefollowing steps: receiving the company contact information, the mediacontent identification, and the user's contact and preferenceinformation; receiving a callback request from the consumer device;automatically scheduling a callback to the user of the consumer devicebased at least on the metadata specific to media content being played onthe user device and on the received contact and preference information;and when scheduled, automatically placing a telephone call to theconsumer device and to a call center agent appropriately skilled tohandle the specific callback request.
 10. The method of claim 9, whereinthe media player application is further configured to perform the stepsof: while the media content is playing: receiving an incoming requestfrom a second user, wherein the incoming request is an incoming call,text, email, or voicemail; retrieving consumer information andinformation associated with incoming request; and sending the consumerinformation and the information associated with the incoming request tothe integrated communication server.
 11. The method of claim 10, whereinthe integrated communication server is further configured to: performthe steps of: receiving the consumer information and the informationassociated with the incoming request; using the consumer information toidentify a consumer profile in a database, wherein the consumerinformation comprises a unique identifier which is used to match againsta stored unique identifier in the consumer profile; retrieving consumercallback preference information from the identified consumer profile;automatically scheduling a callback between the user of the consumerdevice and the second user based at least on the consumer callbackpreference information; and when scheduled, automatically placing atelephone call to the consumer device and to the second user.
 12. Themethod of claim 11, wherein the consumer callback preference informationfurther comprises configuration settings for handling incoming requestswhile the media content is being played.
 13. The method of claim 11,wherein the telephone call to the consumer device and the to the seconduser establishes a two-way voice connection between the user of theconsumer device and the second user.
 14. The method of claim 11, whereinthe consumer callback preference information is stored in a data storageoperating as a component of the integrated communication server.
 15. Themethod of claim 12, wherein the configuration settings compriseuser-specific preferences, group-based preferences, playback-basedpreferences, schedule-based preferences, group based preferences,media-based preferences, and communication channel specific preferences.16. The method of claim 9, wherein the telephone call to the consumerdevice and to a call center agent establishes a two-way voice connectionbetween the user of the consumer device and a selected call centeragent.